The team worked with Yann LeCun, one of the most respected researchers in the computer vision space and the director of Facebook's artificial intelligence research team, as well as an angel investor, to get things rolling.

Mr Srinivasan founded Entrupy with a hunch that computer algorithms could be trained to distinguish genuine luxury handbags from counterfeits.

Entrupy does not have a relationship with the fashion brands themselves, according to Mr Srinivasan, who told Bloomberg the brands prefer not to acknowledge there is a second-hand market for their products.

As more high-end fashion commerce moves online, however, retailers active in that space are pursuing methods to ensure their customers keep coming back.

The startup says it has around 160 business customers, including online retailers, who want to ensure their products are what they are selling them as.

The device can be leased by customers for an initial fee of $299 (£231) and monthly plans start from $99 (£76.5) per month.